I didn’t realize, when taking the above picture, that it was the perfect moment. See how the lavender-blue triangles on the banner pick up exactly the color of the ceanothus in the foreground? The splash of white from the iris on the left balances the frame holding the banner. Wish I could say this was all perfectly planned. I didn’t even fully realize what I had, and rashly trashed the original shot once I had shrunk it to the size you see here. Now I am wishing I had saved it, because the whole scene has changed and I can’t retrace my steps.

I keep learning this lesson the hard way: keep that camera handy and do not let the special moments go unrecorded. Even the next day, the light will be different, the flower will have passed its peak, the shot will be lost. It lives on in memory, of course…and perhaps gains in glory by having escaped capture.